Two Thousand Thirteen

It has been a cold, rainy beginning of this new year. But it has also been a nice, quiet first day of this new year.

Last night we had a mini-celebration. I last minute threw together a few little ideas in hopes of making our New Year celebration a little more memorable for the girls. We always have a nice dinner - something different that we don't have often. For the girls, that means pigs in a blanket. I'm sure considering pigs in a blanket a "nice dinner" is humorous to some but for my girls it is something for special occasions! Also for a special New Year's treat, sparkling grape juice in little plastic champagne cups. This year Ed and I had steaks, stuffed mushrooms and baked sweet potatoes.

But the creme de la creme of our New Year's Eve dinner was definitely the dessert this year. I love baking and for the most part always do my baking from scratch with the exception of two types of desserts. I have yet to make my own pie crust for my pies and had never - until now - made a cake from scratch. I do not bake cakes often at all, usually just birthdays but even the last couple of years I have had a friend bake the girls' birthday cakes (because her cakes are just so incredibly cute and so incredibly delicious!!) After filling up on cookies over our Christmas break I found myself in a cake kind of mood and no cake mixes in the pantry. I figured now is as good a time as any to try a cake from scratch. I went with this recipe for a fluffy white cake with whipped vanilla bean frosting. The vanilla beans I bought months ago have been sitting in my spice cabinet begging to be used.

For my first from scratch cake, I could not be happier. Everyone found it delicious and we've all had seconds as our afternoon snack today.

Other than food I wanted to do a few little things to make the night special. We always do an early countdown with the girls. I'm just not brave enough to let them stay up late yet so 8:00 is when our new year begins. During my lunch break yesterday I picked up a few sparkly tiaras and some party horns for us all to wear. Even Ed was a good sport about wearing the green tiara the girls insisted was for him. Ed and I filled up a trash bag with balloons for our "balloon drop" once the clock struck 8:00. The girls loved the balloons and blowing their horns.

The other new thing for us this year was our "wish balloon." We wrote each of our wishes for 2013 on a slip of paper and tied the paper to a helium balloon. After our countdown we released our wish balloon to go wherever wish balloons are supposed to go.

Our wishes were: 

• not cry anymore (Samantha)
• be super duper good at bedtime (Gabrielle)
• we all be more patient with and kind to one another (me)
• we all stay safe and healthy (Ed)

The girls loved our New Year celebration. Gabrielle even said "this is the best New Year's we've ever had" all because of a couple of small little ideas. But I'm glad it made them happy which was exactly what I wanted. Nothing over the top but just a simple, fun but memorable New Year's Eve together.

This was also the first year in years and years that I did not stay up until midnight. More times than not I'm up alone because Ed usually falls asleep early even the years he makes an attempt to stay up with me. But this year I was asleep before 11:00. And that's okay with me!!

I read this poem, this New Year's wish I suppose you could call it, the other day in one of the devotions I receive in my email and really loved it.

Love, Peace and Joy

Love
to make your memories brighter...
Peace
to make your heart at rest...
Joy
to make your celebration wonderful and really blessed.

Happy New Year

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. Romans 15:13

I wish you all love, peace and joy this new year!!